November 2020

Our Christmas plans look a little different this year at Lea Forest. We will be doing all we can to ensure children can celebrate and enjoy the festive period safely.

Christmas Cards:

Children will still be able to post and receive Christmas cards. We ask that children bring the cards into school on Mondays, we will will then store them safely in school for two days before sending out to children. Please remember to write the name and class of the recipient clearly on the card so that our elves can deliver them.

Christmas Dinner:

Our Christmas dinner will be held on Wednesday 9 December. Please look out for the menu and letter which will be sent out to families in the next week. Children that usually have sandwiches will be able to order a Christmas meal in advance via our online form which will also be shared.

Christmas Parties:

Our Christmas class parties will be held on the last day of the term Thursday 17 December. Children will finish at their normal home times.

Christmas Broadcasts:

We are very disappointed that we can't welcome our community into the hall for our Christmas celebrations this year, but this will not stop us celebrating Christmas in true Lea Forest style. We will be broadcasting our Early Years Production and Christmas concerts involving all of our children and staff for you all to see. Look out for more news about our broadcasts on Classdojo from next week.

AET's Christmas Card Competition:

Our Academy Trust’s annual Christmas card competition is open to entries from all of our children at Lea Forest. The winning design will be used by our trust in their official Christmas greeting cards sent out to lots of friends of AET. There is a £25 Amazon Voucher prize for the winner. Please send in your entries marked clearly with your name and class to Mr Croxon's office by Thursday 10 December.

Christmas Hampers and Non Uniform Days:

We'll be raffling off our Christmas hampers to raise funds for the school in December. Please support us by donating any new unopened items as part of our Non uniform Friday donations (please see the dates section of the newsletter for more information). Our PCAB and SLT will be selling tickets at the school gates with the draw taking place on Tuesday 15 December.

Virtual Book Fair:

We will be offering a virtual book fair to all our parents and children this year. The fair will be open from Monday 7 December and orders will be delivered to school during the week. Please look out for the letter explaining the ordering process next week.

Please make sure you check ClassDojo and the website frequently during December as we will

post updates and more information about our Christmas Plans as they are finalised

Learning and being able to quickly recall multiplication and divisions facts is really important. When you have these mastered other mathematical concepts can be easily solved. Please encourage your children to practise their recall of these facts daily.

Next week, we will see the launch of our TTRS Battle of the Bands competition for KS2 in school. This is a chance for children to practise their recall skills and challenge their friends. Please encourage your children to play at home too.

To celebrate the end of 2020, we invite you to take part in the 2020 challenge!

Come to school everyday for the next 15 days and have the chance to win a £10 Amazon voucher.

What do you need to do?

Come to school every day for the next 15 days, between now and Christmas starting on Friday 27th November. If you have to self isolate, complete online learning instead.

How can you win?

Those that complete the 15 day challenge will have their name put in a prize draw to be carried out on Thursday 17th December. There will be a prize draw per year group (8 prizes in total) so a pupil in every year group has the chance to win. If you have a day off school, you cannot be entered into the prize draw.

As always, it’s been a busy week and we find ourselves another week closer to Christmas! School is always such a hive of activity during this period and we have lots of exciting events and activities planned. We will not let COVID-19 stop us! You can find a list of dates and activities on page 4 of this newsletter.

Leaders have been monitoring the quality of education across the whole school this week, with a particular focus on English and Maths. Miss Francois, Miss Evans, Miss Ward and I have been really impressed by the high standards of teaching and learning at Lea Forest. The children are always engaged in their lessons and with their learning. Our classrooms are purposeful and it’s a joy to spend time dropping into lessons. The standard of work in the children’s books is second to none. I get to visit lots of schools and I have not seen better work anywhere else. Miss Francois spent some time gauging pupil voice and speaking to the children about their learning in English. Here’s some of their comments:

What are you learning? "We are learning to write a persuasive letter to Mr Clarke for new playground equipment."

How will you persuade him? "I will include rhetorical questions to get him thinking, some facts to shock him and I will link it to our children's rights - the right to play."

How are you supported with your writing and reading? "I have the English board to help me and that (points to the washing line) that means I won't get stuck, but I also have adults to help me."

What are you learning? "We are learning about structural devices in advertisements, how they are made, scripted and layed out."

How will that learning help you with the final outcome? "They are good to include in the text as that can be persuasive if used right."

What are you learning? "In the last unit we learnt to write a quest story including fronted adverbials, adventurous vocabulary and apostrophes for possession."

Thank you for your continued support through these difficult times ~ Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Clarke

Our Christmas plans look a little different this year at Lea Forest. We will be doing all we can to ensure children can celebrate and enjoy the festive period safely.

Christmas Cards:

Children will still be able to post and receive Christmas cards. We ask that children bring the cards into school on Mondays, we will will then store them safely in school for two days before sending out to children. Please remember to write the name and class of the recipient clearly on the card so that our elves can deliver them.

Christmas Dinner:

Our Christmas dinner will be held on Wednesday 9 December. Please look out for the menu and letter which will be sent out to families in the next week. Children that usually have sandwiches will be able to order a Christmas meal in advance via our online form which will also be shared.

Christmas Parties:

Our Christmas class parties will be held on the last day of the term Thursday 17 December. Children will finish at their normal home times.

Christmas Broadcasts:

We are very disappointed that we can't welcome our community into the hall for our Christmas celebrations this year, but this will not stop us celebrating Christmas in true Lea Forest style. We will be broadcasting our Early Years Production and Christmas concerts involving all of our children and staff for you all to see. Look out for more news about our broadcasts on Classdojo from next week.

AET's Christmas Card Competition:

Our Academy Trust’s annual Christmas card competition is open to entries from all of our children at Lea Forest. The winning design will be used by our trust in their official Christmas greeting cards sent out to lots of friends of AET. There is a £25 Amazon Voucher prize for the winner. Please send in your entries marked clearly with your name and class to Mr Croxon's office by Thursday 10 December.

Christmas Hampers and Non Uniform Days:

We'll be raffling off our Christmas hampers to raise funds for the school in December. Please support us by donating any new unopened items as part of our Non uniform Friday donations (please see the dates section of the newsletter for more information). Our PCAB and SLT will be selling tickets at the school gates with the draw taking place on Tuesday 15 December.

Virtual Book Fair:

We will be offering a virtual book fair to all our parents and children this year. The fair will be open from Monday 7 December and orders will be delivered to school during the week. Please look out for the letter explaining the ordering process next week.

Please make sure you check ClassDojo and the website frequently during December as we will

post updates and more information about our Christmas Plans as they are finalised

At Lea Forest we aim to develop our pupils’ character through the growth of relationships that define us as human. Through our curriculum, we develop a set of competencies (behaviours) which enable each and every one of our pupils to lead a remarkable life. These competencies can be found at:

https://sites.google.com/aetinet.org/lea-forest-primary-academy/curriculum/aets-character-curriculum.

In addition to the tasks provided by individual class teachers, a ‘Character Curriculum Challenge’ will be set fortnightly on the newsletter.

On this occasion, we would like you to try to complete a Sudoku puzzle. These can be found (for free) in newspapers and magazine and online. Rules and further information about how to complete Sudoku puzzles can be found at: https://sudoku.com/. Remember to share pictures with your teachers via Class Dojo, Twitter and Facebook.

We think learning should have 3 parts that work together…

Over the next few weeks, we will be asking our children about what a ‘remarkable education’ means to them as we start to think about what education will look like in the

future. We want views from the children so that we are providing the best possible education. In preparation, I’d really like you to discuss the following questions at home. We will also be asking the children these questions in school:

1. Are there other things you wish you could learn or do at school? And why?

2. If you could have more choice of what you learn, when you learn and how you learn, what would this look like?

3. What would your dream school be like?

4. What else do you think your school could do to help you with your next step?

Feel free to send any of your ideas or answers to the above questions to me via Class Dojo or feel free to have a chat with me at the gates. I’m very interested to hear your views as we explore and start to shape an education of the future for the children at Lea Forest.

We think learning should have 3 parts that work together…

Over the next few weeks, we will be asking our children about what a ‘remarkable education’ means to them as we start to think about what education will look like in the

future. We want views from the children so that we are providing the best possible education. In preparation, I’d really like you to discuss the following questions at home. We will also be asking the children these questions in school:

1. Are there other things you wish you could learn or do at school? And why?

2. If you could have more choice of what you learn, when you learn and how you learn, what would this look like?

3. What would your dream school be like?

4. What else do you think your school could do to help you with your next step?

Feel free to send any of your ideas or answers to the above questions to me via Class Dojo or feel free to have a chat with me at the gates. I’m very interested to hear your views as we explore and start to shape an education of the future for the children at Lea Forest.

We have celebrated ‘Being Big Hearted’ this week and I’ve been amazed by all of the acts of kindness. The children have taken part in a range of activities

linked to this week’s theme discussing important issues such as cyber-bullying and mental health. I’m also delighted to share that the Lea Forest

community raised £288 for Children in Need last Friday. You are all so generous when it comes to raising money for school or other charities. Already

this year, despite the current circumstances, we’ve raised just under £1,000 for school funds. A huge thanks to our PCAB and everyone who has contributed.

We have celebrated Children in Need day today, with children wearing sporty clothes and purchasing merchandise to raise money. We will let you know how much we have managed to raise in next week’s newsletter. Thank you to everyone for your generosity and for getting involved.

On Monday 16 November we will be holding an odd sock day with the support of Andy Day, cBeebies star and front man of Andy and the Odd Socks. It is a chance for Lea Forest Academy to start Big-Hearted week in positive way.

There is no pressure to wear the latest fashion or buy expensive costumes. All you have to do to take part is wear odd socks, it could not be simpler! Please could we really encourage children to be kind all week and really over praise for acts of kindness. Kind behaviour improves mental health.

Key Stage 1 will receive ‘I like me’ workshops based on raising self-esteem and accepting differences. These mindfulness workshops will take place next Thursday. Key Stage 2 will receive cyber bullying workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

You may be aware that the Government has agreed to provide FSM Vouchers over the Christmas holidays for children who are eligible for FSM (benefits related not universal). In preparation for this, we will be sending out a google form next week for you to update your email address details. I appreciate we may have many of these from earlier in the year, however, we know that we do not have these details for all parents. Once we have more information about how this will work we will of course let you know.

You may be aware that the Government has agreed to provide FSM Vouchers over the Christmas holidays for children who are eligible for FSM (benefits related not universal). In preparation for this, we will be sending out a google form next week for you to update your email address details. I appreciate we may have many of these from earlier in the year, however, we know that we do not have these details for all parents. Once we have more information about how this will work we will of course let you know.

On Wednesday this week, we came together virtually as a school to show our respect on Armistice day. Mr Taylor opened our assembly, and spoke about why we pay tribute to the men and women of the First and Second World War generation, and to those of today’s generation, who have served and paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend our nation. A selection of Year 6 children (Jude, Medina, Isla and Declan) then led our silence with a reading of In Flander Fields before Mr Haw played Last Post and Reveille to signal our silence and time of reflection and respect. As always, your children demonstrated remarkable respect. A further mark of respect was made on Wednesday evening when Mr Croxon lit up our library, covering it in 100 pieces of children’s remarkable artwork in support of the Royal British legion. Recordings of the assembly and artwork can be found on our youtube channel, search for Lea Forest:TV.

We need your help to design an amazing Road Safety poster for our school to help us celebrate Road Safety Week at Lea Forest.

Your poster could include some safety tips, instructions for crossing the road safely or an amazing safety poem. Make sure you include your name and class on your entry. Mr Clarke will be awarding a prize to the best entries in Early years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 at the end of Road Safety Week.

We will be taking part in Children in Need Day on Friday 13 November and will therefore be holding a non-uniform day. Our non-uniform theme is ‘SPORTING HEROES’. Therefore, we will ask for £1 on this day for children to come to school in a ‘sports themed’ fancy dress or kit. We will also be selling items for Children in Need Day throughout the week and all contributions will be sent to the Children in Need charity. If you’d like to find out more about Children in Need and events you can get involved in outside of school, visit the website: https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/

At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them...

Every year the nation unites to make sure that no-one is forgotten and to remember and honour those who have sacrificed themselves to secure and protect our freedom. Remembrance is an ideal time to bring people of all ages and backgrounds together to reflect upon the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces, and to join together in the hope for a brighter, peaceful future. Teaching Remembrance is key to understanding how modern diverse Britain was created and the shared heritage of service and sacrifice across all the UK’s communities.Children and staff will be paying their respect with a 2 min silence and a live stream of Mr Haw playing last post and reveille at 11:00 on 11^th November. Look out for the remarkable work that children have produced in a special tribute on Lea Forest TV.

I hope that you all had a good half term break and are ready for the run-up to Christmas. We ended last half term with a Halloween Fancy dress day and Disco. Thank you to our PCAB for organising this and managing to raise an AMAZING £641.49. This money will be put back into the children’s education and learning experiences.

With the Prime Minister's announcement at the weekend that England will go into lockdown on Thursday 5 November until Wednesday 2 December, our lives will once again be significantly impacted - presenting challenges, uncertainty and moments of anxiety. As a result, I would like to continue with the pulse surveys over the next few weeks. These surveys provide you with the opportunity to let us know how you and your child(ren) are feeling, how things are going and how we can provide further support for your child’s learning. Here is this week’s link: https://edurio.com/poll/76Sjfu

I remain resolute in providing the best possible learning experience for your children whatever the circumstances, and I continue to work with our Trust, AET, to ensure we adhere to the latest guidance so everyone feels safe and supported in school and at home with their learning.